Merge Records: Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2021

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As college students in the late 1980s, Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan launched two projects that came to define their trajectories as entrepreneurs: the "punky but poppy" band Chunk, and the scrappy record label, Merge. For decades, the partners juggled the demands of managing their own band while negotiating record deals and recording dates for other indie artists. But the two worlds also collided in happy ways: touring in their own band was a great way for Mac and Laura to discover new talent, and they also learned that musicians tend to trust a label more if its founders play in a band. Today, Chunk is still going strong as Superchunk, and Merge has morphed into one of the most influential labels in indie music, with bands like The Mountain Goats, Spoon, and Arcade Fire. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	When you leave home, can you ever really go back?
0:12.0	Made a version!
0:13.0	Soccer legend Leo Messi and I both left Argentina as kids.
0:17.0	You know you're that piece of a puzzle that doesn't fit anywhere.
0:20.0	To so many immigrants, football is a way to reconnect.
0:23.0	Listen to the last cop in the embedded podcast feed
0:26.0	to hear the latest collaboration from MPR and Fududo Studios.
0:30.0	Hey, really quick before we start the show.
0:32.0	A lot of you have lots of questions about how I built this.
0:36.0	Like, how do you pick guests or where do you record the show?
0:39.0	Or how can I get in touch with Howard Schultz, spoiler alert on that one?
0:43.0	We can't help you, but we can try and answer any questions you might have about the show,
0:48.0	our work, or even me.
0:49.0	If you'd like to submit a question, please visit gyros.com and fill out the form
0:54.0	and we'll answer some of your questions right here on the show in the coming weeks.
0:58.0	Again, that's GUIRaz.com.
1:06.0	One of my roommates, her dad worked for Budweiser.
1:10.0	And they had made these bass guitars that were Budweiser themed.
1:15.0	It said Budweiser on the bass?
1:17.0	Yes, it did.
	...

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